A vehicle roof panel often includes grooves or channels formed therein, which serve various purposes. These purposes may include such functions as serving as rain gutters, increasing strength/rigidity of the roof panel, improving vehicle aerodynamics, and reducing noise/vibration/harshness (NVH) during vehicle operation.
Such roof panel grooves or channels tend to accumulate water. This is of lesser concern in a vehicle having a roof panel not equipped with a sun roof/moonroof assembly. However, in vehicles equipped with a sun roof/moonroof assembly, the operator may not consider the possibility of accumulated water on the vehicle roof panel, and may simply open the sun roof/moonroof and drive off. On taking actions such as applying the vehicle brakes or driving on to a road defining a vehicle-forward decline, accumulated water may be channeled by inertia and/or gravity into the open sun roof/moonroof. This can potentially result in staining and damaging vehicle interior components such as upholstery, electronics, etc.
Accordingly, a need is identified in the art for structures to prevent such intrusion of water accumulated on a vehicle roof panel into an open sun roof/moonroof.